In 2015, the partners of the Greater University Circle Economic Inclusion Initiative reached an important milestone—5 years of working together to revitalize the seven neighborhoods that comprise Greater University Circle (GUC). This milestone offers an opportunity to take a step back and reflect on why the group first came together as well as their collective accomplishments, challenges, and opportunities. This fifth evaluation report includes a very brief summary of the history of the Initiative before launching into reflections from the participants on the major accomplishments, challenges, and opportunities on the horizon. It concludes with significant outcomes to date. The report highlights significant system changes underway to increase opportunities for economic inclusion of neighborhood residents and businesses within each of the partner organizations as well as collaboratively across partner organizations.
This report has been prepared for the Cleveland Foundation by a team of evaluators from the Centers for Economic Development and Community Planning and Development at Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs. It is based on information collected from three sources:
1. Direct observations of meetings and a review of meeting minutes
2. Interviews with the members of the EIMC Executive Committee members and other key informants (see Appendix A for a list of interviewees)
3. Measures of progress (indicators) toward meeting the EIMC goals and objectives identified in the SMART matrices (each subcommittee has a SMART matrix)